Ralph Wilson's 100th birthday to be honored with art exhibit

The exhibit will include masters like this oil painting by Claude Monet, "Rounded Flower Bed," 1876.

Detroit Institute of Arts
/ Albright-Knox Art Gallery

The late founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills will be honored with an art exhibit at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery next month.

"Humble and Human" is the title of the exhibit, which runs Feb. 2-May 26. It brings together the two homes of the late Ralph C Wilson, Jr. - Buffalo and Detroit - and marks what would have been the 100th birthday of the NFL team owner.

The works are "evocations of the values and ideas that were close to his own heart: the ennobling of simple pleasures and ordinary people," said the Albright-Knox.

The gallery said Wilson's "dedication to innovation and perserverance" will be showcased through more than 40 paintings and sculptures in the genre he amassed during his lifetime, including impressionist artists Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and more.

In Buffalo, the installation will also spotlight works by other American artists inspired by the novel approach of the Impressionists.

Both the Albright-Knox and the Detroit Institute of Arts are partnering on the exhibit. It is the first collaboration for the two galleries. The exhibition and catalogue were underwritten by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation.

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The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation Wednesday announced a $200 million investment in parks and trails in Western New York and Southeast Michigan. The funds will be split evenly between the two regions and are being dedicated in honor of what would have been the 100th birthday of the former Buffalo Bills founder and owner.

Wednesday would have been the 100th birthday of former Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. To honor the milestone, the foundation created in his name announced a major investment in the two places he called home.